Meghna Gulzar | |
|---|---|
 Meghna in 2018 | |
| Born | (1973-12-13)13 December 1973 (age 52)[1] Mumbai,Maharashtra, India |
| Occupations | Writer, film director, producer |
| Years active | 2002–present |
| Spouse | Govind Sandhu |
| Children | 1[2] |
| Parent(s) | Gulzar (father) Raakhee (mother) |
Meghna Gulzar is an Indian writer,director andproducer. She is best known for directing critically acclaimed films;Talvar (2015) andRaazi (2018).[3] Born toGulzar and actressRaakhee, Gulzar joined her father as an assistant to his films and became a screenwriter for her father's 1999 directorialHu Tu Tu.[4] Meghna later became an independent director and directed her first film, the dramaFilhaal... (2002), though she did not achieve directorial success that decade.
Following an eight-year sabbatical, she directed the critically acclaimedTalvar (2015), which earned her a nomination for theFilmfare Award for Best Director, which was moderate success at the box office.
Her first profitable directorial venture came in 2018, when she directed the spy thrillerRaazi, which emerged as one of thehighest-grossing Indian films. She won the Filmfare Award for Best Director forRaazi. She next helmed the biographical dramaChhapaak (2020) met with mixed reviews from critics. She next directed the biographical dramaSam Bahadur (2023) for which she earned theNational Film Award for Best Feature Film Promoting National, Social and Environmental Values.[5]
The daughter of lyricist and poetGulzar and former actressRaakhee, Meghna Gulzar was born on 13 December 1973 inMumbai,Maharashtra. She was named Meghna by her mother, after the river Meghna which flows through her ancestral village.[6]
Meghna began her writing career as a freelance writer forThe Times of India and the NFDC publicationCinema in India. Her poetry was published in anthologies of thePoetry Society of India. After completing her graduation inSociology, she worked with noted filmmakerSaeed Akhtar Mirza as anassistant director. In 1995, she completed a short course in filmmaking from theTisch School of Arts,New York University, New York. Upon her return, she joined her father, writer-directorGulzar, as an assistant on his filmsMaachis andHu Tu Tu. Meghna simultaneously began scripting her own film along with directing documentaries forDoordarshan and music videos for several music albums.
Meghna directed her first film,Filhaal, in 2002,[7] starring former Miss Universe-turned-actressSushmita Sen andTabu. Her second directorial venture wasJust Married in 2007.[8] She also directed a short filmPooranmasi forSanjay Gupta's anthologyDus Kahaniyaan, starringAmrita Singh.
In 2015, Meghna directed the drama thrillerTalvar,[9] written byVishal Bharadwaj and based on the2008 Noida double murder case.[10] The film starredIrrfan Khan,Konkona Sen Sharma andNeeraj Kabi in lead roles. It received high critical acclaim upon release, and earned Gulzar her first nomination for theFilmfare Award for Best Director.
In 2018, she directed the spy thrillerRaazi.[11][12] Produced by Junglee Pictures andDharma Productions, it starredAlia Bhatt andVicky Kaushal.[13] The film is based on Harinder Sikka's novelCalling Sehmat.[14] With worldwide earnings of₹193 crore (US$23 million), it proved one of thehighest-grossing Bollywood films.Raazi won theFilmfare Award for Best Film and earned Gulzar theFilmfare Award for Best Director for her work.
For her next directorial concept, Meghna chose to make a biopic on the life of acid attack survivorLaxmi Agarwal, which she namedChhapaak, (2020) that is about Malti, an acid attack survivor inspired by Agarwal. The film featuredDeepika Padukone as Malti and was critically acclaimed upon its release on 10 January 2020.[15]
She will next helm the life of military officerSam Manekshaw in a biographical film that will star Kaushal as Manekshaw and is produced byRonnie Screwvala. The film titledSam Bahadur (2023), featuring Vicky Kaushal in the title role was released in December 2023.
Author Harinder Sikka has accused Meghna of cheating and ghosting after she adapted his bookCalling Sehmat into the 2018 filmRaazi. According to Sikka, after securing the rights to his book, Meghna made significant changes to the story, particularly the ending, and took a pro-Pakistan stance in the film without his approval. He said that she didn't allow him to see the director's cut of the film, stopped speaking to him after filming finished, and removed him from all film-related media promotions and credits. He also accused her father, Gulzar, of calling Penguin publishers and pushing them to delay the launch of Harinder's book by two months 'so that Meghna received all the attention', as well as pressuring the Jaipur Literature Festival to remove Harinder as a speaker.[16][17]
| Year | Film | Director | Story | Screenplay | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Hu Tu Tu | Yes | |||
| 2002 | Filhaal... | Yes | Yes | ||
| 2007 | Just Married | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| 2007 | Dus Kahaniyaan | Yes | Segment:Puranmaashi | ||
| 2015 | Talvar | Yes | Nominated—Filmfare Award for Best Director | ||
| 2018 | Raazi | Yes | Yes | Filmfare Award for Best Director Nominated—Filmfare Award for Best Film (Critics) Nominated—Filmfare Award for Best Screenplay | |
| 2020 | Chhapaak | Yes | Yes | ||
| 2023 | Sam Bahadur | Yes | Yes | Won-National Film Award[18][19] | |
| 2026 | Daayra | Yes | Yes | Filming[20] |
| International | |
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| National | |
| Other | |
